For those of you younger than 40 you may not have heard of some of the "sayings" listed here. Most of us will recognize all of them:

Where did "Piss Poor" come from? Interesting History.

They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot.
And then once it was full it was taken and sold to the tannery...if you had to do this to survive you were "Piss Poor".

But worse than that were the really poor folk who couldn't even afford to buy a pot... They "didn't have a pot to piss in" and were the lowest of the low.

The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature, think about how things used to be.

Here are some facts about the 1500's . . .

Most people got married in June (more weddings are planned for June than any other month of the year) because they took their yearly bath in May, And they still smelled pretty good by June.. However, since they were starting to smell, Brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor.

Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water.

The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children.

Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it.. Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the Bath water!"

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath.
It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof.

When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying, "It's raining cats and dogs."
There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house.

This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, "Dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on the floor to help keep their footing..

As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door,
It would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way.
Hence: a thresh hold.

(Getting quite an education, aren't you?)

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day.

Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while.

Hence the rhyme:
“Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old.

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special.
When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, "bring home the bacon."

They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and
"chew the fat."

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death.
This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status.. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the "upper crust."

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial.

They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up.
Hence the custom; of "holding a wake".

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave.. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had ben burying people alive.

So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell.

Soeone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be, “saved by the bell" or was considered a "dead ringer."

And that's the truth.

Now, whoever said History was boring!!!

That's good stuff King....I just don't remember history being that enjoyable in school.

me either Mac

England Still has them for people to take on the evening tours down into them.

Also If they had a "dead ringer" they were considered zombie like because they rose from the dead and were often shunned as evil.

AWESOME!!!!   And Isee I was a victim of the bath thing....I was raised 40 miles from the nearest village/town...baths were on Sunday...Dad went first, then Mom. then Laura, Steve, Ron then me...ewwwww.......but I never got sick Hmmmmmm...
IceBear...

Yeah, some good stuff that!

KB, that's absolutely amazing! thoroughly enjoyed it!
and btw, Go Tigers!!!!!!! Can't believe they're playing Alabama again....at least it's in my home town (SuperDome)....I'll prob. pass by on my bike...check it all out before the game....

Cool stuff if you have anymore let us know Thanks

Good post,its amazing how so many traditions/sayings have been passed on this way!!

cool info...been bored out there on the rig?......sure it took a good while to look all that up...sad part is..i already knew half of that,lol........much better than the history i got in high school............
and we also did the "second hand" bath..but ours was backwards...

Lola, don't give me that much credit. Someone emailed it to me and I just copied and pasted. But thanks for the vote of confidence lol

Very interesting

Loved the history lesson also had my son read it...good stuff!

Here's a bit of trivia some of you may already be aware of. In America when giving someone "the finger" it's the index (oops ;middle)  finger.

Back in the olden days of Great Britain, the crown had a problem with the unruly peasants; most notably those from Scotland and Ireland. The Brits cut off the two fingers archers used to draw their bow. So, "the finger" in the United Kingdom is actually akin to the peace sign...two fingers up in defiance of the crown.
Thanks for the post. I'm a sucker when it comes to stuff like that.

Peace

I am now educated!